Election Returns

CLAYTON, MO (KMOX) - Taking heat from Muslim groups upset with a coloring book about the 9/11 Attacks, a publisher says he’s been in contact with local police and the FBI.

Wayne Bell, the Publisher of Really Big Coloring Books, Inc., says there’s been a negative backlash against the book “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom.”

“These are people from Al-Jazeera that have called in here numerous times, people from Iranian TV, people from Palestinian Hamas TV,” Bell said, “A lot of people from the Islamic community have called in here and said increasingly negative things prior to the book being made and then after we made the book too, about the book itself.”

The book features images of Osama Bin Laden and Islamic terrorists. It also shows American citizens upset by the attacks, including a woman with a cross around her neck. But it shows no Muslim Americans mourning the attacks.

The Council on American Islamic Relations has criticized the book as one-sided, only portraying Muslims as either “extremists” or “terrorists. ”

Bell was asked to explain the absence of patriotic Muslim Americans in the book who were also opposed to the attacks.

Publisher Wayne Bell with 9/11 coloring book

“Well, I don’t know, I mean this is what our research showed us,” Bell said, “Every time we mention one of the hijackers we call them what they are. And that’s what parents wanted. Radical, Islamic, Muslim Extremists. And every time we mention one of the hijackers like the three guys that drove the plane into the Pentagon, there’s nothing else you can call them. I mean, what do think, they’re having a bad hair day?”

The book has been selling briskly, so fast that Bell said he had no extra copies for reporters to take with them today. Bell declined to disclose how many copies have sold, except to say “a lot.”

When asked about whether he has had any threats because of the book, Bell stopped short of saying he had.

“That’s our C.O.O., ” Bell said, pointing to a co-worker, “He’s talked to the Clayton police department, a sergeant at the Clayton police department and the FBI, regarding your question. That’s the answer to your question. And so, it’s really good to be aware of your surroundings. We’ll put it that way.
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